In the last Stu's News (company newsletter for Sunbelt customers) I published Microsoft's 10 Security Laws and got an earful of feedback. [grin] Bruce MacDonald, who is an Information Technology Manager sent me this. Quite interesting and humorous reading actually! (You can subscribe to Stu's News over here, it's a monthly):

Law #1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, It's not your computer anymore.

REBUTTAL #1: If an operating system writer sells an operating
system that permits this, then the OS writer is an accomplice.

Law #2: If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it's not your computer anymore.

REBUTTAL #2: If the writer of that operating system make "everyone: Full control" the default security setting, then the OS writer is an accomplice and should be liable for any damage thus caused.

Law #3: If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your
computer, It's not your computer anymore.

REBUTTAL #3: If ANYONE other than yourself and trusted individuals has unrestricted physical access to your computer, then you are a fool and deserve what you get.

Law #4: If you allow a bad guy to upload programs to your Web site, it's not your Web site any more.

REBUTTAL #4: If someone pretending to be a good guy does the same thing, they become the bad guy.

Law #5: Weak passwords trump strong security.

REBUTTAL #5: Once again, Microsoft reveals an astonishing degree of hypocrisy by making this a 'law'. Installing Windows XP Pro does not even prompt for an administrator password, let alone force even basic password common sense. If Microsoft did their job properly, it would be impossible to create a weak password.

Law #6: A machine is only as secure as the administrator is trustworthy.

REBUTTAL #6: This is a universal security law, not a computer or technological one. Stating the obvious.

Law #7: Encrypted data is only as secure as the decryption key.

REBUTTAL #7: I guess they wanted 10 laws really bad. This is stating the obvious again.

Law #8: An out-of-date virus scanner is only marginally better than no virus scanner at all.

REBUTTAL #8: No existing virus scanner is of any use whatsoever against previously unknown viruses. At the vary basis of system design, it should be totally impossible to introduce an executable piece of code, without putting the machine deliberately into an 'installation mode'.

In such a mode, only specially designated installation programs would run. Nothing could ever execute unless first "blessed" by such an installer. A separate "execution" mode would not permit installers to run. A further "developer" mode would permit both, but would be restricted to running developer tools. Such an operating system would be relatively easy to implement, and no malware could then exist.

Law #9: Absolute anonymity isn't practical, in real life or on the Web.

REBUTTAL #9: Bullsh!t. Microsoft threw this in 'cuz they want people become less protective of their privacy. Presumably so that Microsoft can profit by exploiting it. This statement is detestable. By throwing the word 'absolute' in there, they make their statement true, but its intent is sinister. I see a day coming when all content generated for use outside the confines of the computer that created it will be required to be digitally signed by its originator, and further by each distributor as it travels the internets of the world, and all accesses of private systems will require prior permission, whereas access to public systems will still be permissible anonymously. In Canada (I don't know about the US) trespass on another's land is a tort (a civil case), but peeking in their windows is a criminal offense (the equivalent in the US of a felony). Microsoft, and many other internet entities, by using information found on my computer without my permission commit the same offence. The only difference is that it is copper, not glass, that they are peeking through.

Law #10: Technology is not a panacea. (noun: hypothetical remedy for all ills or diseases; once sought by the alchemists)

REBUTTAL #10: LOL - and they finish off by stating the obvious once again.

I'll finish off with a law of my own:

MacDonald's Law: Every communication originating from a corporation is self-serving, and contains deceptions, misdirections and outright falsehoods. Corollary: The purpose of the deception is to mine your pockets. You have been warned."

28 July, 2004

"Speakers at the podium of the Democratic National Convention are being gagged when it comes to gay marriage," the New York Post reports.

"Top party officials and campaign aides said [Monday] that not only has gay marriage been yanked from the party's official platform, but speakers will be vetted to make sure they steer clear of pro-gay-marriage rhetoric," reporter Ian Bishop writes.

"The Democrats' tip-toeing around the delicate subject was evident in the speech delivered by Tammy Baldwin, the openly gay congresswoman from Wisconsin ? who avoided the word marriage in her call for equal treatment."

Nope, what fly-over country does not know will not hurt them. You think they would at least have the courage of their convictions- what am I saying- courage, convictions, hah!

This came into my E-mail this weekend about South Africa, and I thought I would pass it along.

How big is gun-related crime?

Â· 84,6 percent of robberies where aggravating circumstances are present, such as hijackings, are committed with firearms
Â· 73,5 percent of attempted murders are committed with firearms
Â· 44,6 percent of murders are committed with firearms.

According to the Gun Control Alliance more people die in gun-related incidents than in car accidents.

None of these statistics distinguish between legal and illegal guns.

Last month the Medical Research Council released the findings of the first national femicide study. It found that South Africa has the highest researched rate of femicide in the world and that 20 percent of the perpetrators of femicide had legal guns.

Oh, I do have four questions:

Â· What is an illegal gun?
Â· Is not the criminal doing an illegal act with a tool?
Â· Has anyone ever witnessed a gun performing an illegal act?
Â· Are you sure you really want some restrictions?

In other words, it was faked, and considering the Google search and that the Captain Dan McSweeney is a Marine Corp Spokesman, it would not surprise me if it was not the Captain his-self, or was it a butterbar?

Well, seeing it was 16:27:21 when the hit occurred, it was to late in the day for that- or was it?

Mr. Sharkey made me aware today of this, which was posted last week on July 1st:

"Next week, on Wednesday or Thursday, Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is planning to add to a House appropriations bill, which funds the Justice Department, an amendment that cuts off funds for bookstore and library searches under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. The American Booksellers Association, in conjunction with its partners in the Campaign for Reader Privacy (CRP) -- the American Library Association and PEN American Center -- is urging members of the book industry, the library community, and the general public to support the amendment, which seeks to bar the Justice Department from using any of the appropriations funding to search bookstore and library records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act."

More information on this can be found here; and then curiously, minutes later, he also received this in from the same E-mail list:

"Librarians across the state are crying foul over a widespread request for library cardholder information, and some argue the query amounts to an attack on privacy rights.

05 July, 2004

The letter writer, Lorian Miles, said in a June 29 letter she was offended by the ads, which show a Confederate battle flag in scenes from a music video by country artist Mark Wills. "While some view the Confederate flag as a symbol of Southern pride, the vast majority of people view it as a symbol of the South's racist past," she wrote.

In the video, Wills climbs out of the car driven by the Dukes of Hazard, which has the flag painted on its roof. Eager to avoid the perennial controversy that surrounds the Southern Cross, organizers blurred it from view in commercials that aired after Wednesday.

"We thought it was the easiest way to solve the situation and move forward," said Celebrate America executive director Billy Holder, who said the letter was the only complaint he'd heard. "I think everybody will be happy with the event overall," he said.

"Village of Pewaukee - Tyler Schultz was only following Pewaukee High School's directions to let his personality shine through in his senior yearbook photo when he brought a rifle and Confederate flag along to his picture session, his mother says.

Pewaukee High School senior Tyler Schultz let his personality shine through this photo for the senior yearbook, his mother says.

Now the school has decided Schultz's image is inappropriate for a school publication and asked for another photo, and his mother is crying censorship.

"I want them to admit they did something wrong," said Schultz's mother, Tammy Ankomeus. "They shouldn't have censored a picture and not told us anything about it."

Of course, when getting something back, you have to scream about it too:

"More than a century after Confederate Gen. Thomas R.R. Cobb died fighting in the Civil War, his pro-slavery writings and architectural ideas are being hotly debated in a squabble over the homecoming of his old home.

Preservationists contend the Greek Revival house, which was moved from Athens to the Atlanta suburb of Stone Mountain in 1985 and will move back this summer, is an architectural gem. Some call it the Monticello of Georgia, referring to Thomas Jeffersonâ€™s Virginia home. Some future neighbors of the house say itâ€™s a symbol of slavery."

But then again, decrying dead white men, always seems to be one of the perennial rages by politically correct bastards and wussies.

"Thomas Jeffersonâ€™s legacy in Berkeley may rest on the vote of school children born after William Jefferson Clinton took office.

But not if Jefferson Elementary School Principal Betty Delaney can stop it.

According to Jefferson PTA President Linda Safarik-Tong, Delaney told the PTA that concerns from parents and teachers have led her to seek permission from the Berkeley Unified School District to waive a requirement that students as young as five vote on the controversial drive to strike the name of the author of the Declaration of Independence from the school."

I missed this last week when it was first posted, and found it tonight, and am wondering just how many of you dear readers are still using such a horrible weapon.

"Today, computer sellers are required to get a license to export any computer with performance equal to or greater than a system with 32 Intel Itanium processors. The current version of the defense authorization act would lower that limit to systems deemed "militarily critical" by the Department of Defense. That level is currently set to the equivalent of a computer using a Pentium 3 processor running at 650MHz, state of the art in 1999 but considered feeble today."

I remember when the 486DX16 was still listed for non-export because it could, then, handle real-time missile tracking.

Michael Moore does not care if you grab his films, and share them. I cannot recall where I originally found this link, but it was Friday evening.

I did not believe it either, until I saw the video of his news conference, where he says he does not care if people acquire his movie via file sharing.

Whose Paranoid does not know jack about file sharing, but if Mr. Moore desires to spread his, largesse, then Whose Paranoid will accept it, this time, however, I had to learn how to use BT to even attempt to acquire it. The original client kept dying on me, so I found this one, which worked quite well in a fairly short amount of time. Once you have a client, then, you can find out what you need here.

Oh, and Vin Suprynowicz has an excellent article, which I found via World Net Daily this morning, on this documentary, posted to the Las Vegas Review Journal, yesterday.

And it made me think of just how far most people in this country have let slip their desire for freedom and liberty- so much so, that I remembered this:

Then, two days ago, my compadre No-Neck sent this to me:

I knew this would be true and I thought long and hard about these men:

The men, whose history is unknown my so many- and cared for by even less, gave us our start on this path and that so many of the men of their day were willing to do this:

Understand, they were traitors to their government, they conspired to commit acts that would bring certain death down upon them and their families, and I must ask, how many are willing, today, to risk the same?

Vin Suprynowicz has a column that has been around the net since he first wrote it in 1997, and it is well worth reading and then contemplating, particularly in light of recent laws, regulations and SCOTUS announcements.

03 July, 2004

It was a glorious morning. The sun was shining and the wind was from the southeast. Up especially early, a tall, bony, redheaded young Virginian found time to buy a new thermometer, for which he paid three pounds, fifteen shillings. He also bought gloves for Martha, his wife, who was ill at home.

Thomas Jefferson arrived early at the statehouse. The temperature was 72.5: and the horseflies weren't nearly so bad at that hour. It was a lovely room, very large, with gleaming white walls. The chairs were comfortable. Facing the single door were two brass fireplaces, but they would not be used today.

The moment the door was shut, and it was always kept locked, the room became an oven. The tall windows were shut, so that loud quarreling voices could not be heard by passersby. Small openings atop the windows allowed a slight stir of air, and also a large number of horseflies. Jefferson records that "the horseflies were dexterous in finding necks, and the silk of stocking was as nothing to them." All discussion was punctuated by the slap of hands on necks.

On the wall at the back, facing the President's desk, was a panoply--consisting of a drum, swords, and banners seized from Fort Ticonderoga the previous year. Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured the place, shouting that they were taking it "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!"

Now Congress got to work, promptly taking up an emergency measure about which there was discussion but no dissension. "Resolved: That an application be made to the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania for a supply of flints for the troops at New York."

Then Congress transformed itself into a committee of the whole, The Declaration of Independence was read aloud once more, and debate resumed. Though Jefferson was the best writer of all of them, he had been somewhat verbose. Congress hacked the excess away. They did a good job, as a side-by-side comparison of the rough draft and the final text shows. They cut the phrase "by a self-assumed power." "Climb" was replaced by "must read," then "must" was eliminated, then the whole sentence, and soon the whole paragraph was cut. Jefferson groaned as they continued what he later called "their depredations." "Inherent and inalienable rights" came out "certain unalienable rights," and to this day no one knows who suggested the elegant change.

A total of 86 alterations were made. Almost 500 words were eliminated, leaving 1,337. At last, after three days of wrangling, the document was put to a vote.

Here in this hall Patrick Henry had once thundered: "I am no longer a Virginian, Sir, but an American." But today the loud, sometimes bitter argument stilled, and without fanfare the vote was taken from north to south by colonies, as was the custom. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

There were no trumpets blown. No one stood on his chair and cheered. The afternoon was waning and Congress had no thought of delaying the full calendar of routine business on its hands. For several hours they worked on many other problems before adjourning for the day.

Much to Lose

What kind of men were the 56 signers who adopted the Declaration of Independence and who, by their signing, committed an act of treason against the Crown? To each of you the names Franklin, Adams, Hancock, and Jefferson are almost as familiar as household words. Most of us, however, know nothing of the other signers. Who were they? What happened to them?

I imagine that many of you are somewhat surprised at the names not there: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry. All were elsewhere.

Ben Franklin was the only really old man. Eighteen were under 40; three were in their 20s. Of the 56, almost half--24--were judges and lawyers. Eleven were merchants, 9 were land-owners and farmers, and the remaining 12 were doctors, ministers, and politicians.

With only a few exceptions, such as Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, these were men of substantial property. All but two had families. The vast majority were men of education and standing in their communities. They had economic security as few men had in the 18th century.

Each had more to lose from revolution than he had to gain by it. John Hancock, one of the richest men in America, already had a price of 500 pounds on his head. He signed in enormous letter so "that his Majesty could now read his name without glasses and could now double the reward." Ben Franklin wryly noted: "Indeed we must all hang together, otherwise we shall most assuredly hang separately." Fat Benjamin Harrison of Virginia told tiny Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: "With me it will all be over in a minute, but you, you will be dancing on air an hour after I am gone."

These men knew what they risked. The penalty for treason was death by hanging. And remember: a great British fleet was already at anchor in New York Harbor.

They were sober men. There were no dreamy-eyed intellectuals or draft card burners here. They were far from hot-eyed fanatics, yammering for an explosion. They simply asked for the status quo. It was change they resisted. It was equality with the mother country they desired. It was taxation with representation they sought. They were all conservatives, yet they rebelled.

It was principle, not property, that had brought these men to Philadelphia. Two of them became presidents of the United States. Seven of them became state governors. One died in office as vice president of the United States. Several would go on to be U.S. Senators. One, the richest man in America, in 1828 founded the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. One, a delegate from Philadelphia, was the only real poet, musician and philosopher of the signers (it was he, Francis Hopkinson--not Betsy Ross--who designed the United States flag).

Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, had introduced the resolution to adopt the Declaration of Independence in June of 1776. He was prophetic is his concluding remarks:

"Why then sir, why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American Republic. Let her arise not to devastate and to conquer but to reestablish the reign of peace and law. The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us. She demands of us a living example of freedom that may exhibit a contrast in the felicity of the citizen to the ever increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repose. If we are not this day wanting in our duty, the names of the American legislators of 1776 will be placed by posterity at the side of all of those whose memory has been and ever will be dear to virtuous men and good citizens."

Though the resolution was formally adopted July 4, it was not until July 8 that two of the states authorized their delegates to sign, and it was not until August 2 that the signers met at Philadelphia to actually put their names to the Declaration.

William Ellery, delegate from Rhode Island, was curious to see the signers' faces as they committed this supreme act of personal courage. He saw some men sign quickly, "but in no face was he able to discern real fear." Stephen Hopkins, Ellery's colleague from Rhode Island, was a man past 60. As he signed with a shaking pen, he declared: "My hand trembles, but my heart does not."

"Most Glorious Service"

Even before the list was published, the British marked down every member of Congress suspected of having put his name to treason. All of them became the objects of vicious manhunts. Some were taken. Some, like Jefferson, had narrow escapes. All who had property or families near British strongholds suffered.

Francis Lewis, New York delegate, saw his home plundered and his estates, in what is now Harlem, completely destroyed by British soldiers. Mrs. Lewis was captured and treated with great brutality. Though she was later exchanged for two British prisoners through the efforts of Congress, she died from the effects of her abuse.

William Floyd, another New York delegate, was able to escape with his wife and children across Long Island Sound to Connecticut, where they lived as refugees without income for seven years. When they came home, they found a devastated ruin.

Phillips Livingstone had all his great holdings in New York confiscated and his family driven out of their home. Livingstone died in 1778 still working in Congress for the cause.

Louis Morris, the fourth New York delegate, saw all his timber, crops, and livestock taken. For seven years he was barred from his home and family.

John Hart of Trenton, New Jersey, risked his life to return home to see his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him, and he escaped in the woods. While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked his Homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he was hunted across the countryside. When at long last, emaciated by hardship, he was able to sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried, and his 13 children taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779, without ever finding his family.

Dr. John Witherspoon, signer, was president of the College of New Jersey, later called Princeton. The British occupied the town of Princeton, and billeted troops in the college. They trampled and burned the finest college library in the country.

Judge Richard Stockton, another New Jersey delegate signer, had rushed back to his estate in an effort to evacuate his wife and children. The family found refuge with friends, but a sympathizer betrayed them. Judge Stockton was pulled from bed in the night and brutally beaten by the arresting soldiers. Thrown into a common jail, he was deliberately starved. Congress finally arranged for Stockton's parole, but his health was ruined. The judge was released as an invalid, when he could no longer harm the British cause. He returned home to find his estate looted and did not live to see the triumph of the revolution. His family was forced to live off charity.

Robert Morris, merchant prince of Philadelphia, delegate and signer, met Washington's appeals and pleas for money year after year. He made and raised arms and provisions which made it possible for Washington to cross the Delaware at Trenton. In the process he lost 150 ships at sea, bleeding his own fortune and credit almost dry.

George Clymer, Pennsylvania signer, escaped with his family from their home, but their property was completely destroyed by the British in the Germantown and Brandywine campaigns.

Dr. Benjamin Rush, also from Pennsylvania, was forced to flee to Maryland. As a heroic surgeon with the army, Rush had several narrow escapes.

John Morton, a Tory in his views previous to the debate, lived in a strongly loyalist area of Pennsylvania. When he came out for independence, most of his neighbors and even some of his relatives ostracized him. He was a sensitive and troubled man, and many believed this action killed him. When he died in 1777, his last words to his tormentors were: "Tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it [the signing] to have been the most glorious service that I rendered to my country."

William Ellery, Rhode Island delegate, saw his property and home burned to the ground.

Thomas Lynch, Jr., South Carolina delegate, had his health broken from privation and exposures while serving as a company commander in the military. His doctors ordered him to seek a cure in the West Indies and on the voyage He and his young bride were drowned at sea.

Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., the other three South Carolina signers, were taken by the British in the siege of Charleston. They were carried as prisoners of war to St. Augustine, Florida, where they were singled out for indignities. They were exchanged at the end of the war, the British in the meantime having completely devastated their large land holdings and estates.

Thomas Nelson, signer of Virginia, was at the front in command of the Virginia military forces. With British General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, fire from 70 heavy American guns began to destroy Yorktown piece by piece. Lord Cornwallis and his staff moved their headquarters into Nelson's palatial home. While American cannonballs were making a shambles of the town, the house of Governor Nelson remained untouched. Nelson turned in rage to the American gunners and asked, "Why do you spare my home?" They replied, "Sir, out of respect to you." Nelson cried, "Give me the cannon!" and fired on his magnificent home himself, smashing it to bits. But Nelson's sacrifice was not quite over. He had raised $2 million for the Revolutionary cause by pledging his own estates. When the loans came due, a newer peacetime Congress refused to honor them, and Nelson's property was forfeited. He was never reimbursed. He died, impoverished, a few years later at the age of 50.

Lives, Fortunes, Honor

Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create, is still intact.

And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark. He gave two sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and sent to the infamous British prison hulk afloat in New York harbor known as the hell ship "Jersey," where 11,000 American captives were to die. The younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father. One was put in solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight, with the war almost won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding to the British request when they offered him his sons' lives if he would recant and come out for the King and parliament. The utter despair in this man's heart, the anguish in his very soul, must reach out to each one of us down through 200 years with his answer: "No."

Arturo Gonzalez Cruz, as reported by Fox News, "says flat out, he wants to see the border disappear."SeÃ±or Arturo Gonzalez Cruz is Mexico's new man is in charge of border relations...

And we then have John Kerry vowing: "In my first 100 days as president, I will send a comprehensive immigration reform bill to Congress that does justice to this issue..."

Hmm, this does not sound like immigration policy overhaul, but a ploy by the putz to engender those Americans of Mexican ancestry to vote for him.

There is a man, who is in congress, who is quite knowledgeable regarding immigration and speaks about it consistently. That man is Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado and here is an interesting article about him. The article details information about the matricula consular and another article, at VDARE, about Representative Tancredo, tells the story of how certain friends of an open border responded to the threat of Mr. Tancredo, who railed against the government of Mexico, who wishes that the United States taxpayer pay for the education of illegal aliens. That argument arose from a story that is linked (a link no longer valid) in this article, by the Denver Post about a young illegal immigrant named Jesus Apodaca, who could not go to college- at the taxpayerâ€™s expense.

Young Mr. Apodaca was an honor student, and certainly not like Omar Garza. I read about Mr. Garza, this morning in an article about high school dropout rates in Texas. Mr. Garza had this to say about his desires, and the reason he dropped out:

"I needed one more semester to graduate," said Garza, who left Mexico for Texas as a teen. "I would like to finish. I don't want to do this all my life."

Garza said he quit school partly because he didn't want to take classes in English as a second language.

"I also met a girl, and you know how it is," he said. "We fell in love and started having kids."

I wonder if Mr. Omar Garza, of Houston, Texas will vote for Kerry, or even if he can, as the article does not state if he is a United States citizen.